The overnight period was cold with temperatures in the high 20’s. Skies were partly cloudy until later in the morning when snow began to fall. Once again wind was an issue in the canyon, but it was not as relentless as it had been in recent days. Astrid arrived at the box super early – at 12:23 AM! She stayed on the long perch for the balance of the night. At 5:24 she darted into the dark canyon and Ares arrived within a minute of her departure. He immediately began calling to her. At 5:28 he uttered a few alarm calls and flew. He screeched back at 5:55 but was there for less than five minutes. His next stop was the lookout post on the roof of the State Building. At 6:23 he was on a ledge at the hotel. There he was busy processing some fresh-caught prey. It appeared to be a Common Grackle. Obviously anticipating the arrival of a gift, she came to the nestbox. After eating some of it himself, Ares brought the meal to his mate at 6:32. She accepted it and flew it over to the hotel. At 7:14 Astrid had finished breakfast and was back to a window ledge east of the nestbox. At 7:18 the pair mated. He returned to the box at around 7:40. She landed on a west ledge a few minutes later which got him highly excited. Just before 8:00 AM the pair had a failed mating attempt. At 9:00 they tried again and were successful. Ten minutes later Ares went to the west face of the State Building, pulled a Woodcock out from one of his pantry ledges and then buzzed by Astrid with it. He then brought it to a ledge just to the west of the one she was perched on. There it stayed; she had no interest in taking it.
At 9:44 AM the pair were conversing again – him at the nest and her on a west window ledge. They mated ten minutes later and then Ares flew up to perch on his pillar. At 10:02 he moved to the west veranda. Periodically he gave long calls for the next hour or so. He also did some work inside the box. He made a scrape and then did some digging in the gravel in the corner of the box – Hey! Isn’t that usually Astrid’s job. At 11:07 the falcons mated once more. After that Ares was out of view for a while. He showed up with a food gift at 11:29. Astrid accepted it on the west ledge and flew over to the hotel with it. By this point it was snowing more heavily in the canyon and, as it happened, the snow would continue right through the day and into evening. At 11:45 Astrid was back at the box and the pair mated. He then flew back up to his pillar perch and Astrid moved to the east veranda. For the next 90 minutes the falcons stayed in place. Ares snoozed occasionally, but the pair continued to guard the nest area. Just before 2:00 PM Ares was in the box and giving squeaking calls. 20 minutes later he was snoozing again. At 3:20 Astrid and Ares were loudly conversing. There was an aborted mating attempt at 3:38. At around 4:10 Ares was back in the box. The snowfall was intermittently quite intense, and we were amazed that the falcons were going on with their breeding and courtship rituals as if it were a bright sunny day. At 4:20 the pair mated again. Twenty minutes later Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid accepted it on the crossperch and flew off. We couldn’t find where she took it, but it wasn’t the hotel. At 4:58 she came back to the crossperch at the box. Her crop was cartoonishly large. The pair mated a couple of minutes post her return. After that, Ares went to his pillar. A half hour later she was calling out and asking to mate. At 5:48 they did and then he yoyoed back to his pillar. At 6:00 Astrid retired. She darted around the east side of the State Building and disappeared. Ares stayed on his pillar for nearly another hour and well after nightfall. Goodnight falcons.
